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MERCEDES 



MERCEDES 



& Drama in Cmo Stctis 



BY 

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH 



AS PERFORMED AT 
PALMER'S THEATRE 





BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

OTbc RiterisitJc $rc#s, Cambnbfle 
1894 



itjiW)) 



81^ 



.M» 



oK 



Copyright, 1SS3 and 1893, 
By T. B. ALDRICH. 

All rights reserved. 



y 

characters 

achille louvois 
laboissiere 

PADRE JOSfiF 

MERCEDES 

URSULA 

SERGEANT & SOLDIERS 

Scene: Spain Period: iSio 



CAST 

AS PERFORMED AT PALMER'S THEATRE 



Captain Achille Louvois \ of ( Mr. E. J. Henley 

[ the \ 
Lieutenant LaboissArb ) 2dcliasseurs \ Mr. Maurice Barrymorb 

Padre Josef Mr. J. L. Ottomeyer 

Mercedes Miss Julia Arthur 

Old Ursula Mrs. D. P. Bowers 

Sergeants, Soldiers, etc. 



MERCEDES 
ACT I 

A detachment of French troops bivouacked on the edge of 
the forest of Covelleda — A sentinel is seen on the cliffs 
overhanging the camp — The guard is relieved in dumb 
show as the dialogue progresses — Louvois and Labois- 
siere, wrapped in greatcoats, are seated by a smouldering 
fire of brushwood in the foreground — Starlight. 

Scene I 
LOUVOIS, LABOISSIF.RE 

Laboissiere 
Louvois ! 

Louvois, starting from a reverie 
Eh ? What is it ? I must have slept. 



io MERCEDES 

Laboissiere 
With eyes staring at nothing, like an Egyptian 
idol ! This is not amusing. You are as gloomy 
to-night as an undertaker out of employment. 

Louvois 
Say, rather, an executioner who loathes his 
trade. No, I was not asleep. I cannot sleep 
with this business on my conscience. 

Laboissiere 
In affairs like this, conscience goes to the rear 
— with the sick and wounded. 

Louvois 
One may be forgiven, or can forgive himself, 
many a cruel thing done in the heat of battle ; 



MERCEDES n 

but to steal upon a defenceless village, and in 
cold blood sabre old men, women, and children 
— that revolts me. 

Laboissiere 
What must be, must be. 

Louvois 
Yes — the poor wretches. 

Laboissiere 
The orders are 

Louvois 
Every soul ! 

Laboissiere 
They have brought it upon themselves, if that 
comforts them. Every defile in these infernal 
mountains bristles with carabines ; every village 



12 MERCEDES 

gives shelter or warning to the guerrillas. The 
army is being decimated by assassination. It is 
the same ghastly story throughout Castile and 
Estremadura. After we have taken a town we 
lose more men than it cost us to storm it. I 
would rather look into the throat of a battery 
at forty paces than attempt to pass through cer- 
tain streets in Madrid or Burgos after nightfall. 
You go in at one end, but, diantre! you don't 
come out at the other. 

Louvois 
What would you have ? It is life or death with 
these people. 

Laboissiere 
I would have them fight like Christians. Poi- 
soning water-courses is not fighting, and assas- 



MERCEDES 13 

sination is not war. Some such blow as we are 

about to strike is the sort of rude surgery the 

case demands. 

Louvois 

Certainly the French army on the Peninsula 
is in a desperate strait. The men are worn out 
contending against shadows, and disheartened 
by victories that prove more disastrous than 
defeats in other lands. 

Laboissiere 
It is the devil's own country. The very birds 
here have no song. 1 Even the cigars are damna- 
ble. Will you have one ? 

Louvois 

Thanks, no. 

1 Except in a few provinces, singing-birds are rare in 
Spain, owing to the absence of woodland. 



14 MERCEDES 

Laboissiere, after a pause 

This village of Arguano which we are to dis- 
cipline, as the brave Junot would say, is it much 
of a village ? 

Louvois 

No; an insignificant hamlet — one wide calk 
with a zigzag line of stucco houses on each side ; 
a fiosada, and a forlorn chapel standing like an 
overgrown tombstone in the middle of the ceme- 
tery. In the market-place, three withered olive 
trees. On a hilltop overlooking all, a windmill 
of the time of Don Quixote. In brief, the regu- 
lation Spanish village. 

Laboissiere 

You have been there, then ? — with your three 
withered olive trees ! 



MERCEDES 15 

Louvois, slowly 
Yes, I have been there . . . 

Laboissiere, aside 

He has that same odd look in his eyes which 
has puzzled me these two days. (Aloud.) If I 
have touched a wrong chord, pardon ! You 
have unpleasant associations with the place. 

Louvois 
I ? Oh no ; on the contrary I have none but 
agreeable memories of Arguano. I was quar- 
tered there, or, rather, in the neighbourhood, 
for several weeks a year or two ago. I was 
recovering from a wound at the time, and the 
air of that valley did me better service than a 
platoon of surgeons. Then the villagers were 



1 6 MERCEDES 

simple, honest folk — for Spaniards. Indeed, 
they were kindly folk. I remember the old 
padre ; he was not half a bad fellow, though I 
have no love for the long-gowns. With his scant 
black soutane, and his thin white hair brushed 
behind his ears under a skull-cap, he somehow 
reminded me of my old mother in Languedoc, 
and we were good comrades. We used now and 
then to empty a bottle of Valdepehas together 
in the shady posada garden. The native wine 
here, when you get it pure, is better than it 
promises. 

Laboissiere 

Why, that was consorting with the enemy ! The 

Church is our deadliest foe now. Since the bull 

of Pius VII., excommunicating the Emperor, 

we all are heretical dogs in Spanish eyes. His 



MERCEDES 17 

Holiness has made murder a short cut to hea- 
ven. 1 By poniarding or poisoning a Frenchman, 
these fanatics fancy that they insure their infini- 
tesimal souls. 

Louvois rises 

Yes, they believe that ; yet when all is said, I 

have no great thirst for this poor padre's blood. 

If the marechal had only turned over to me some 

other village ! No — I do not mean what I say. 

Since the work was to be done, it was better I 

1 In Andalusia, and in fact throughout Spain at that 
period, the priests taught the children a catechism of 
which this is a specimen : " How many Emperors of the 
French are there ? " " One actually, in three deceiving 
persons." — "What are they called?" "Napoleon, Murat, 
and Manuel Godoy, Prince of the Peace." — " Which is 
the most wicked?" "They are all equally so." — "What 
are the French?" "Apostate Christians turned heretics." 
— "What punishment does a Spaniard deserve who fails 
in his duty ? " " The death and infamy of a traitor." — 
" Is it a sin to kill a Frenchman ? " " No, my father ; 
heaven is gained by killing one of these heretical dogs." 



18 MERCEDES 

should do it. There 's a fatality in sending me to 
Arguano. Remember that. From the moment 
the order came from headquarters I have had 
such a heaviness here. {Pauses.) Awhile ago, in 
a half doze, I dreamed of cutting down this harm- 
less old priest who had come to me to beg mercy 
for the women and children. I cut him across 
the face, Laboissiere ! I saw him still smiling, 
with his lip slashed in two. The irony of it ! 
When I think of that smile I am tempted to break 
my sword over my knee, and throw myself into 
the ravine yonder. 

Laboissiere, aside 

This is the man who got the cross for sabring 
three gunners in the trench at Saragossa ! It is 
droll he should be so moved by the idea of killing 



MERCEDES 19 

a beggarly old Jesuit more or less. {Aloud?) Bah ! 
it was only a dream, voila tout — one of those 
villainous nightmares which run wild over these 
hills. I have been kicked by them myself many 
a time. What, the devil ! dreams always go by 
contraries ; in which case you will have the sat- 
isfaction of being knocked on the head by the 
venerable padre — and so quits. It may come to 
that. Who knows ? We are surrounded by spies ; 
I would wager a week's rations that Arguano is 
prepared for us. 

Louvois 
If I thought that ! An assault with resist- 
ance would cover all. Yes, yes — the spies. They 
must be aware of our destination and purpose. 
A movement such as this could not have been 
made unobserved. {Abruptly?) Laboissiere ! 



20 MERCEDES 

Laboissiere 
Well ? 

Louvois 
There was a certain girl at Arguano, a niece 
or god-daughter to the old padre — a brave girl. 

Laboissiere 
Ah — so ? Come now, confess, my captain, it 
was the sobrina, and not the old priest, you 
struck down in your dream. 

Louvois 
Yes, that was it. How did you know ? 

Laboissiere 
By instinct and observation. There is always 
a woman at the bottom of everything. You have 
only to go deep enough. 



MERCEDES 21 

Louvois 
This girl troubles me. I was ordered from 
Arguano without an instant's warning — at mid- 
night — between two breaths, as it were. Then 
communication with the place was cut off. . . . 
I have never heard word of her since. 

Laboissiere 
So ? Did you love her ? 

Louvois 
I have not said that. 

Laboissiere 
Speak your thought, and say it. I ever loved 
a love-story, when it ran as clear as a trout-brook 
and had the right heart-leaps in it. With this 



22 MERCEDES 

wind sighing in the tree-tops, and these heavy 
stars drooping over us, it is the very place and 
hour for a bit of romance. Come, now. 

Louvois 
It was all of a romance. 

Laboissiere 
I knew it ! I will begin for you : You loved 
her. 

Louvois 
Yes, I loved her. It was the good God that 
sent her to my bedside. She nursed me day and 
night. She brought me back to life. ... I know 
not how it happened ; the events have no sequence 
in my memory. I had been wounded ; I dropped 
from the saddle as we entered the village, and 



MERCEDES 23 

was carried for dead into one of the huts. Then 
the fever took me. . . . Day after day I plunged 
from one black abyss into another, my wits quite 
gone. At odd intervals I was conscious of some 
one bending over me. Now it seemed to be a 
demon, and now a white-hooded sister of the 
Sacred Heart at Paris. Oftener it was that 
madonna above the altar in the old mosque at 
Cordova. Such strange fancies take men with 
gunshot wounds. One night I awoke in my 
senses, and there she sat, with her fathomless 
eyes fixed upon my face, like a statue of Pity. 
You know those narrow, melting eyes these 
women have, with a dash of Arab fire in them. . . . 

Laboissiere 
Know them ? Sacrebleu ! 



24 MERCEDES 

Louvois 
The first time I walked out, she led me by the 
hand, I was so very weak, like a little child 
learning to walk. It was spring, the skies were 
blue, the almonds were in blossom, the air was 
like wine. Great heaven ! how beautiful and 
fresh the world was, as if God had just made it ! 
From time to time I leaned upon her shoulder, 
not thinking of her. . . . Later I came to know 
her — a saint in disguise, a peasant-girl with the 
instincts of a duchess. 

Laboissiere 
They are always like that, saints and duch- 
esses — by brevet! I fell in with her own 
sister at Barcelona. Look you — braids of 
purple -black hair and the complexion of a 



MERCEDES 25 

newly - minted napoleon. I forget her name. 
{Knitting his brows?) Paquita . . . Mariquita ? 
It was something-quita, but no matter. 

Louvois 
How it all comes back to me ! The wild foot- 
paths in the haunted forest of Covelleda ; the 
broken Moorish water-tank, in the plaza, against 
which we leaned to watch the gypsy dances ; the 
worn stone-step of the cottage, where we sat of 
evenings with guitar and cigarette. What simple 
things make a man forget that his grave lies in 
front of him ! {Pauses.) There was a lover, a 
contrabandista, or something — a fellow who 
might have played the spadassin in one of Lope 
de Vega's cloak-and-dagger comedies. The 
gloom of the lad, fingering his stiletto-hilt ! 



26 MERCEDES 

Presently she sent him to the right-about, him 
and his scowls — the poor devil. 

Laboissiere 
Oh, a very bad case ! 

Louvois 

I would not have any hurt befall that girl, 

Laboissie're ! 

Laboissiere 

Surely. 

Louvois 

And there 's no human way to warn her of her 

danger ! 

Laboissiere 

To warn her would be to warn the village — and 
defeat our end. However, no French messenger 
could reach the place alive. 



MERCEDES 27 

Louvois 
And no other is possible. Now you under- 
stand my misery. I am ready to go mad. 

Laboissiere 
You take the thing too seriously. Nothing ever 
is so bad as it looks, except a Spanish ragofit. 
After all, it is not likely that a single soul is left in 
Arguano. The very leaves of this dismal forest 
are lips that whisper of our movements. The 
villagers have doubtless made off with that fine 
store of grain and aguardiente we so sorely stand 
in need of, and a score or two of the brigands are 
probably lying in wait for us in some narrow 
canon. 

Louvois 
God will it so ! 



28 MERCEDES 

Laboissiere 
Louvois, if the girl is at Arguano, not a hair of 
her head shall be harmed, though I am shot for 
it when we get back to Burgos ! 

Louvois 
You are a brave soul, Laboissiere ! Your words 
have lifted a weight from my bosom. Without 
your aid I should be powerless to save her. 

Laboissiere 
Are we not comrades, we who have fought side 
by side these six months, and lain together night 
after night with this blue arch for our tent-roof ? 
Dismiss your anxiety. What is that Gascogne 
proverb ? — " We suffer most from the ills that 
never happen." Let us get some rest; we have 



MERCEDES 29 

had a rude day. . . . See, the stars have doubled 
their pickets out there to the westward. 

Louvois 
You are right ; we should sleep. We march at 
daybreak. Good-night. 

Laboissiere 
Good-night, and vive la France! 

Louvois 
Vive V Empereur ! 

Laboissiere walks aivay humming 
" Reposez-vous, bons chevaliers ! " 

Louvois, looking after him 
There goes a light heart. But mine . . . mine 
is as heavy as lead. 



30 MERCEDES 

Scene II 
LYRICAL INTERLUDE 

Soldiers' Song 

While this is being sung behind the scenes the guard is 
relieved on the cliffs. Louvois wraps his cloak around 
him and falls into a troubled sleep. 

The camp is hushed ; the fires burn low ; 
Like ghosts the sentries come and go : 
Now seen, now lost, upon the height 
A keen drawn sabre glimmers white. 
Swiftly the midnight steals away — 
Reposcz-vous, bons chevaliers / 

Perchance into your dream shall come 
Visions of love or thoughts of home ; 
The furtive night wind, hurrying by, 
Shall kiss away the half-breathed sigh, 



MERCEDES 31 

And softly whispering, seem to say, 
Reposez-vous, bons chevaliers ! 

Through star-lit dusk and shimmering dew 
It is your lady comes to you ! 
Delphine, Lisette, Annette — who knows 
By what sweet wayward name she goes ? 
Wrapped in white arms till break of day, 
Reposez-vous, bons chevaliers ! 



In the course of the song the stage is gradually darkened 
and the scene changed. 



ACT II 



Morning — The interior of a stone hut in Arguano 
— Through the door opening upon the calle are seen 
piles of Indian corn, sheaves of wheat, and loaves of 
bread partly consumed — Empty wine-skins are scat- 
tered here and there among the cinders — In one cor- 
ner of the chamber, which is low-studded but spacious, 
an old woman is sitting in an arm-chair and crooning 
to herself — At the left, a settle stands against the 
wall — In the centre of the room a child lies asleep in a 
cradle — Mercedes — Padre Josef entering abruptly. 



Scene I 
MERCEDES, Padre JOSET, then URSULA 

Padre Josef 
Mercedes ! daughter ! are you mad to linger 
so? 



MERCEDES 33 

Mercedes 
Nay, father, it is you who are mad to come 
back. 

Padre Josef 
We were nearly a mile from the village when 
I missed you and the child. I had stopped 
at your cottage and found no one. I thought 
you were with those who had started at sun- 
rise. 

Mercedes 
Nay, I brought Chiquita here last night when 
I heard the French were coming. 

Pad?-e Josef 
Quick, Mercedes ! there is not an instant to 
waste. 



34 MERCEDES 

Mercedes 
Then hasten, Padre Jose'f, while there is yet 
time. [Pushes him towards the door. 

Padre Josef 
And you, child ? 

Mercedes 
I shall stay. 

Padre Josef 
Listen to her, Sainted Virgin ! she will stay, 
and the French bloodhounds at our very heels ! 

Mercedes, glancing at Ursula 
Could I leave old Ursula, and she not able to 
climb the mountain ? Think you — my own 
flesh and blood ! 



MERCEDES 35 

Padre Josef 
Ah, cielo ! true. They have forgotten her, the 
cowards ! and now it is too late. God willed it 
— santifcado sea tu nonibre! {Hesitates?) Mer- 
cedes, Ursula is old — very old; the better part 
of her is already dead. See how she laughs and 
mumbles to herself, and knows naught of what 
is passing. 

Mercedes 
The poor grandmother ! she thinks it is a 
saint's day. [Seats herself on the settle. 

Padre Josef 
What is life or death to her whose soul is 
otherwhere ? What is a second more or less to 
the leaf that clings to a shrunken bough ? But 



36 . MERCEDES 

you, Mercedes, the long summer smiles for such 
as you. Think of yourself, think of Chiquita. 
Come with me, child, come ! 

Ursula 
Ay, ay, go with the good padre, dear. There 
is dancing on the plaza. The gitanos are there, 
mayhap. I hear the music. I had ever an ear 
for tambourines and castanets. When I was a 
slip of a girl, I used to foot it with the best in 
the cachuca and the bolera. I was a merry jade, 
Mercedes — a merry jade. Wear your broidered 
garters, dear. 

Mercedes 
She hears music. (Listens.*) No. Her mind 
wanders strangely to-day, now here, now there. 
The gray spirits are with her. {To Ursula gently?) 



MERCEDES 37 

No, grandmother, I came to stay with you, I 

and Chiquita. [Crosses over to Ursula. 

Padre Jose> 

You are mad, Mercedes. They will murder 

you all. 

Mercedes 

They will not have the heart to harm Chiquita, 
nor me, perchance, for her sake. 

Padre Josef 
They have no hearts, these Frenchmen. Ah, 
Mercedes, do you not know better than most 
that a Frenchmen has no heart ? 

[Points to the cradle. 

Mercedes, hastily 

I know nothing. I shall stay. Is life so sweet 

to me ? Go, Padre Josef. What could save you 

if they found you here ? Not your priest's gown. 



3 8 MERCEDES 

Padre Josef 
You will follow, my daughter ? 

Mercedes 

No. 

Padre Josef 
I beseech you ! 

Mercedes 
No. 

Padre Josef 
Then you are lost ! 

Mercedes 
Nay, padrino, God is everywhere. Have you 
not yourself said it? Lay your hands for a 



MERCEDES 39 

moment on my head, as you used to do when 
I was a little child, and go — go ! {Kneels. 

Padre Josef 
Thou wert ever a wilful girl, Mercedes. 

Mercedes 

Oh, say not so; but quick — your blessing, 

quick ! 

Padre Josef 

A Dios. . . . 

He makes the sign of the cross on Mercedes' forehead, 
and slowly turns away. Mercedes rises, follows him to 
the door, and looks after him with tears in her eyes. 
Then she returns to the middle of the room, and sits on 
a low stool beside the cradle. 



4 o MERCEDES 

Scene II 
MERCEDES, URSULA 

Ursula, after a silence 
Has he gone, the good padre ? 

Mercedes 
Yes, dear soul. 

Ursula, reflectively 
He was your uncle once. 

Mercedes 
Once ? Yes, and always. How you speak ! 

Ursula 
He is not gay any more, the good padre. He 
is getting old . . . getting old. 



MERCEDES 41 

Mercedes 
To hear her ! and she eighty years last San 
Miguel's day ! 

Ursula 
What day is it ? 

Mercedes, laying one finger on her lips 
Hist ! Chiquita is waking. 

Ursula, querulously 
Hist ? Nay, I will say my say in spite of all. 
Hist ? God save us ! who taught thee to say hist 
to thy elders ? Ay, ay, who taught thee ? . . . 
What day is it ? 

Mercedes, aside 
How sharp she is awhiles ! {Aloud?) Pardon, 
pardon ! Here is little Chiquita, with both eyes 



4 2 MERCEDES 

wide open, to help me beg thy forgiveness. 
{Bends over the cradle?) See, she has a smile for 
grandmother. . . . Ah, no, little one, I have no 
milk for thee ; the trouble has taken it all. Nay, 
cry not, dainty, or that will break my heart. 

Ursula 
Sing to her, nieta. What is it you sing that 
always hushes her ? 'T is gone from me. 

Mercedes 
I know not. 

Ursula 
Bethink thee. 

Mercedes 
I cannot. Ah — the rhyme of The Three 
Little White Teeth? 



MERCEDES 43 

Ursula, clapping her hands 
Ay, ay, that is it ! 

Mercedes rocks the child, and sings 
Who is it opens her blue bright eye, 
Bright as the sea and blue as the sky ? — 

Chiquita ! 
Who has the smile that comes and goes 
Like sunshine over her mouth's red rose ? — 
Muchachita ! 

What is the softest laughter heard, 
Gurgle of brook or trill of bird, 

Chiquita ? 
Nay, 't is thy laughter makes the rill 
Hush its voice and the bird be still, 

Muchachita ! 

Ah, little flower-hand on my breast, 
How it soothes me and gives me rest ! 
Chiquita ! 



44 MERCEDES 

What is the sweetest sight I know ? 
Three little white teeth in a row, 
Three little white teeth in a row, 
Muchachita ! 

As Mercedes finishes the song, a roll of drums is heard in 
the calle. At the first tap she starts and listens 
intently, then assumes a stolid air. The sound ap- 
proaches the door and suddenly ceases. 



Scene III 
LABOISSlERE, MERCEDES, then SOLDIERS 

Laboissiere, outside 
A sergeant and two men to follow me ! 
{Mutters?) Curse me if there is so much as a 
mouse left in the whole village. Not a drop of 
wine, and the bread burnt to a crisp — the 
see/erats ! {Appeals at the threshold. ) Hulloa ! 
what is this ? An old woman and a young one 



MERCEDES 45 

— an Andalusian by the arch of her instep and 
the length of her eyelashes ! (In Spanish.) Girl, 
what are you doing here ? 

Mercedes, in Froich 
Where should I be, monsieur ? 

Laboissiere 
You speak French ? 

Mercedes 
Caramba ! since you speak Spanish. 

Laboissiere 

It was out of politeness. But talk your own 

jargon — it is a language that turns to honey on 

the tongue of a pretty woman. (Aside.) It was 

my luck to unearth the only woman in the place ! 



46 MERCEDES 

The captain's white blackbird has flown, bag and 
baggage, thank Heaven ! Poor Louvois, what a 
grim face he made over the empty nest ! (A/oud.) 
Your neighbors have gone. Why are you not 
with them ? 

Mercedes, pointing to Ursula 
It is my grandmother, sehor ; she is very old. 

Laboissiere 
So ? You could not carry her off, and you 
remained ? 

Mercedes 
Precisely. 

Laboissiere 
That was like a brave girl. {Touching his cap) 



MERCEDES 47 

I salute valor whenever I meet it. Why have 
all the villagers fled ? 

Mercedes 
Did they wish to be massacred ? 

Laboissiere, shrugging his shoulders 
And you ? 

Mercedes 

It would be too much glory for a hundred and 
eighty French soldiers to kill one poor peasant 
girl. And then to come so far ! 

Laboissiere, aside 

She knows our very numbers, the fox ! How 
she shows her teeth ! 



4 8 MERCEDES 

Mercedes 
Besides, senor, one can die but once. 

Laboissiere 
That is often enough. — Why did your people 
waste the bread and wine ? 

Mercedes 
That yours might neither eat the one nor drink 
the other. We do not store food for our enemies. 

Laboissiere 
They could not take away the provisions, so 
they destroyed them ? 

Mercedes, mockingly 
Nothing escapes you ! 



MERCEDES 49 

Laboissiere 
Is that your child ? 

Mercedes 
Yes, the hija is mine. 

Laboissiere 
Where is your husband — with the brigands 
yonder ? 

Mercedes 
My husband ? 

Laboissiere 
Your lover, then. 

Mercedes 
I have no lover. My husband is dead. 



50 mercedes 

Laboissiere 
I think you are lying now. He 's a guerrilla. 

Mercedes 
If he were, I should not deny it. What Span- 
ish woman would rest her cheek upon the bosom 
that has not a carabine pressed against it this 
day ? It were better to be a soldier's widow 
than a coward's wife. 

Laboissiere, aside 
The little demon ! But she is ravishing ! She 
would have upset St. Anthony, this one — if he 
had belonged to the Second Chasseurs ! What 
is to be done ? Theoretically, I am to pass my 
sword through her body; practically, I shall make 
love to her in ten minutes more, though her 



MERCEDES 51 

readiness to become a widow is not altogether 

pleasing. {Aloud.) Here, sergeant, go report 

this matter to the captain. He is in the posada 

at the farther end of the square. 

Exit sergeant. Shouts of exultation and laughter are 
heard in the calle, and presently three or four soldiers 
enter, bearing several hams and a skin of wine. 

1ST Soldier 
Voila, lieutenant ! 

Laboissiere 
Where did you get that ? 

2D Soldier 
In a cellar hard by, hidden under some rushes. 

3D Soldier 
There are five more skins of wine like this 



52 MERCEDES 

jolly fellow in his leather jacket. Pray order a 
division of the booty, my lieutenant, for we are 
as dry as herrings in a box. 

Laboissiere 
A moment, my braves. {Looks at Mercedes 
significantly?) Woman is that wine good ? 

Mercedes 
The vintage was poor this year, sefior. 

Laboissiere 
I mean — is that wine good for a Frenchman 
to drink ? 

Mercedes 
Why not, sefior? 



MERCEDES 53 

Laboissiere, sternly 
Yes or no? 

Mercedes 
Yes. 

Laboissiere 
Why was it not served like the rest, then? 

Mercedes 
They hid a few skins, thinking to come back 
for it when you were gone. An ill thing does 
not last forever. 

Laboissiere 
Open it, some one, and fetch me a glass. 
{To Mercedes^) You will drink this. 



54 MERCEDES 

Mercedes, coldly 
When I am thirsty I drink. 

Laboissiere 
Pardieu ! this time you shall drink because / 
am thirsty. 

Mercedes 
As you will. {Empties the glass.) To the 
King. 

Laboissiere 
That was an impudent toast. I would have 
preferred the Emperor or even Godoy ; but no 
matter — each after his kind. To whom will the 
small-bones drink ? 

Mercedes 
The child, sefior ? 



MERCEDES 55 

Laboissiere 

Yes, the child ; she is pale and sickly-looking ; 

a draught will do her no harm. All the same, 

she will grow up and make some man wretched. 

Mercedes 
But. senor 

Laboissiere 
Do you hear ? 

Mercedes 
But Chiquita, senor — she is so little, only 
thirteen months old, and the wine is strong ! 

Laboissiere 
She shall drink. 



56 mercedes 

Mercedes 
No, no ! 

Laboissiere 
I have said it, sacre nom 



Mercedes 
Give it me, then. {Takes the glass and holds 
it to the child's lips.) 

Laboissiere watching her closely 
Woman ! your hand trembles. 

Mercedes 
Nay, it is Chiquita swallows so fast. See ! she 
has taken it all. Ah, senor, it is a sad thing to 
have no milk for the little one. Are you content ? 



MERCEDES 57 

Laboissiere 

Yes ; I now see that the men may quench 
their thirst without fear. One cannot be too 
cautious in this hospitable country ! Fall to, my 
children ; but first, a glass for your lieutenant. 

[Drinks. 

Ursula 

Ay, ay, the young forget the old . . . forget 
the old. 

Laboissiere, laughing 

Why, the depraved old sorceress ! But she 
is right. She should have her share. Place 
aux dames I A cup, somebody, for Madame la 
Diablesse ! 



58 MERCEDES 

Mercedes, aside 

Jose-Maria ! 

One of the men carries wine to Ursula. Mercedes sits 
on the stool beside the cradle, resting her forehead on 
her palms. Laboissiere stretches himself on the settle. 
Several soldiers come in, and fill their canteens from 
the wine-skin. They stand in groups, talking in under- 
tones among themselves. 

Ursula rises from her chair 
The drink has warmed me to the heart, Mer- 
cedes ! Said I not there was dancing on the 
plaza ? 'T is but a step from here. 'T would 
do these old eyes good to look once more upon 
the dancers. The music drags me yonder ! 
(Wander ingly.) Nay, take away your hands, 
Mercedes — a plague upon ye! [Goes out. 

Laboissiere suddenly starts to his feet and dashes 
his g/ass on the floor 
The child! look at the child! What is the 



MERCEDES 59 

matter with it? It turns livid — it is dying! 
Comrades, we are poisoned ! 

Mercedes rises hastily and throws her man- 
tilla over the cradle 
Yes, you are poisoned ! Al fuego — al fuego 
— todos al fuego l 1 You to perdition, we to 
heaven ! 

[The soldiers advance towards Mercedes. 

Laboissiere interposing 
Leave her to me ! Quick, some of you, go 
warn the others ! ( Unsheathes his sword.) 
I end where I ought to have begun. 

Mercedes tearing aside her neckerchief 
Strike here, sehor. . . . 
1 To the flames — to the flames — all of you to the flames ! 



60 MERCEDES 

Louvois enters, and halts between the two with a 
dazed expression ; he glances from Laboissiere 
to the woman, and catches his breath 
Mercedes ! 

Laboissiere 

Louvois, we are dead men ! Beware of her, she 

is a fiend ! Kill her without a word ! The drink 

already throttles me — I — I cannot breathe here. 

[Staggers out, followed wildly by the soldiers. 

Scene IV 

LOUVOIS, MERCEDES 

Louvois 
What does he say ? 

Mercedes 
You heard him. 



MERCEDES 61 

Louvois 
His words have no sense. (Advancing towards 
her.) Oh, why are you in this place, Mercedes ? 

Mercedes, recoiling 
I am here, senor 

Louvois 
You call me senor — you shrink from me 

Mercedes 
Because we Spaniards do not desert those 
who depend upon us. 

Louvois 
Is that a reproach ? Ah, cruel ! Have you 

forgotten 

Mercedes 
I have forgotten nothing:. I have had cause 



62 MERCEDES 

to remember all. I remember, among the rest, 

that a certain wounded French officer was cared 

for in this village as if he had been one of 

our own people — and now he returns to 

massacre us. 

Louvois 

Mercedes ! 

Mercedes 
I remember the morning, nearly two years ago, 
when Padre Josef brought me your letter. You 
had stolen away in the night — like a deserter ! 
Ah, that letter — how it pierced my heart, and 
yet bade me live ! Because it was full of those 
smooth oaths which woman love, I carried it in 
my bosom for a twelvemonth ; then for another 
twelvemonth I carried it because I hoped to 
give it back to you. {Takes a paper fro?n her 



MERCEDES 63 

bosom.) See, seiior, what slight things words 

are ! {Tears the paper into small pieces, which she 

scatters at his feet.) 

Louvois 

Ah! 

Mercedes 

Sometimes it comforted me to think that you 

were dead. Sehor, 't is better to be dead than 

false — and you were false ! 

Louvois 
Not I, by all your saints and mine ! It is 
you who have broken faith. I should be the 
last of men if I had deserted you. Why, even 
a dog has gratitude. How could I now look 
you in the face ? 

Mercedes 
'T was an ill day you first did so ! 



64 MERCEDES 

Louvois 
Listen to me ! 

Mercedes 
Too many times I have listened. Nay, speak 
not ; I might believe you! 

Louvois 
If I do not speak the truth, despise me ! Since 
I left Arguano I have been at Lisbon, Irun, 
Aranjuez, among the mountains — I know not 
where ; but ever in some spot whence it was im- 
possible to send you tidings. A wall of fire and 
steel shut me from you. Thrice I have had 
my letters brought back to me — with the 
bearers' blood upon them ; thrice I have trusted 
to messengers whose treachery I now discover. 
For a chance bit of worthless gold they broke 
the seals, and wrecked our lives ! Ah, Mercedes, 



MERCEDES 65 

when my silence troubled you, why did you not 
read the old letter again ! If the words you 
had of mine lost their value, it was because they 
were like those jewels in the padre's story, which 
changed their color when the wearer proved 
unfaithful. 

Mercedes 

Aquilles ! 

Louvois 
Though I could not come to you nor send to 
you, I never dreamed I was forgotten. I used 
to say to myself : " A week, a month, a year 
— what does it matter ? That brown girl is as 
true as steel ! " I think I bore a charmed life 
in those clays ; I grew to believe that neither 
sword nor bullet could touch me until I held 
you in my arms again. {The girl stands with her 



66 MERCEDES 

hands crossed upon her bosom, and looks at him 

with a growing light iti her eyes?) It was the 

day before yesterday that our brigade returned 

to Burgos — at last ! at last ! O love, my eyes 

were hungry for you ! Then that dreadful order 

came. Arguano had been to me what Mecca 

is to the Mohammedan — a shrine to be reached 

through toil and thirst and death. Oh, what a 

grim freak it was of fate, that I should lead a 

column against Arguano — my shrine, my Holy 

Land ! 

Mercedes moves swiftly across the room, and kneeling 
on the flag-stones near Louvois's feet begins to pick up 
the fragments of the letter. He suddenly stoops and 
takes her by the wrists. 

Mercedes ! 

Mercedes 
Ah, but I was so unhappy ! Was I unhappy ? 



MERCEDES 67 

I forget. {Looks up in his face and laughs.) It 
is so very long ago ! An instant of heaven would 
make one forget a century of hell ! When I hear 
your voice, two years are as yesterday. It was 
not I, but some poor girl I used to know who was 
like to die for you. It was not I — I have never 
been anything but happy. Nay, I needs must 
weep a little for her, the days were so heavy to 
that poor girl. And when you go away again, as 

go you must 

Louvois 

I shall take you with me, Mercedes. Do you 
understand ? You are to go with me to Burgos. 
(Aside.) What a blank look she wears! She 
does not seem to understand. 

Mercedes, abstractedly 

With you to Burgos ? I was there once, in the 



6S MERCEDES 

great cathedral, and saw the bishops in their 
golden robes, and all the jewelled windows ablaze 
in the sunset. But with you ? Am I dreaming 
this ? The very room has grown unfamiliar to me. 
The crucifix yonder, at which I have knelt a 
hundred times, was it always there ? My head 
is full of unwonted visions. I think I hear music 
and the sounds of castanets, like poor old Ursula. 
Those cries in the calle — is it a merry-meeting ? 
Ah ! what a pain struck my heart then ! O God ! 
I had forgotten! (Clutches his arm and pushes 
him from her.) Have you drunk wine this day ? 

Louvois 
Why, Mercedes, how strange you are ! 

Mercedes 
No, no ! have you drunk wine ? 



MERCEDES 69 

Louvois 

Well, yes, a cup without. What then ? How 
white you are ! 

Mercedes 

Quick ! let me look you in the face. I wish to 
tell you something. You loved me once ... it 
was in May . . . your wound is quite well now ? 
No, no, not that ! All things slip from me. 
Chiquita — nay, hold me closer, I do not see 
you. Into the sunlight — into the sunlight ! 

Louvois 
She is fainting! 

Mercedes 

I am dying — I am poisoned. The wine was 

drugged for the French. I was desperate. 

Chiquita — there in the cradle — she is dead — 

and I [Sinks down at his feet. 



70 MERCEDES 

Louvois, stooping over her 
Mercedes ! Mercedes ! 

After an interval a measured tramp is heard outside. A 
sergeant with a file of soldiers in disorder enters 
the hut. 

Scene V 
SERGEANT and SOLDIERS 
ist Soldier 
Behold ! he has killed the murderess. 

2D Soldier 
If she had but twenty lives now! 

3D Soldier 
That would not bring back the brave Labois- 
siere and the rest. 

2D Soldier 
Sapristi, no ! but it would give us life for life. 



U 



MERCEDES 7 i 

4TH Soldier 
Misericorde ! are twenty 

Sergeant 
Hold your peace, all of you ! (Advances and 
salutes Louvois, who is half kneeling beside the body 
of the woman?) My captain ! (Aside?) He does 
not answer me. (Lays his hand hurriedly on 
Zouvois's shoulder, and starts.) Silence, there ! 
and stand uncovered. He is dead ! 











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